When friends come to visit

"The Walsh's and Ben Conde visited forever"

It has seemed like everyone has had friends visiting at some point on this trip and finally it's time for my friends to come and visit!! Yay!! Well I'm kind of using Therese's friends as my friends, which I am friends with Eva so it's not really off base... 

Anyways when they all came and visited it felt like we were repeating our first week in Budapest all over again. It was filled with a lot of sightseeing and a lot of late nights. Therese had class the day that the gang got back from Vienna so I spent most of the day taking them around; lunch on Raday, Gellert Hill, and the market. It was so much fun to see Eva and them and just be around people that I haven't seen in a while, also it's sooo funny to see Jamey, Eva, and Therese together!! Love the Walsh's. 

These guys came right in time for Thanksgiving and got to spend the wonderful holiday with us. Day after Thanksgiving we did a bunch of touristy things during the day as well. We all went to Pizzetta down the street for lunch and later all went to the Opera. So everyone was kind of getting over all the wine from Thanksgiving and we went to see an Opera with Hungarian subtitles.. I am proud to say that I was the only one who didn't fall asleep! Probably the funniest moment was after the performance when Stefphon was in his tux eating McDonald's, super casual ya know?!!

Therese & Jamie so silly

Later that night I went over to the Italian's with Claudia and a bunch of other people. A lot of the group went to Vienna during the day and were gonna meet up with us after at the bar we were going to. We all went to Lokal (ha I finally made it out to Lokal!) and there was so weird new wave music playing that night. Some craziness was happening at the dorm apparently because when the Walsh group met up with us at Lokal there were some interesting stories being told... I won't go into detail but pretty much a friend of Stefphon has a weak bladder and slept on Therese's bed. 

Next day Claudia and I decided to be productive and get work done at the Starbucks by St.Stephen's Basilica. We were really more motivated to get work done, because the Christmas Market was right outside the Basilica and we figured we'd check it out after "working" on school stuff. The market is so adorable!! Ah I love Christmas time it's even more amazing in Europe if you can believe that!!

Later at night a bunch of us went to this really cool ruins pub called Fogasház. I seriously think this is my favorite ruins pub in Budapest!! It was soo cool and big and had awesome music and it was a really really really fun night! We went there because Arielle's friend was having a birthday party. All of us were just hanging out and enjoying the night. Fogasház means dentist in Hungarian so there were teeth and mouths all over the place, so nuts!! There was also a piano at the bar which was just totally random, like seriously favorite bar in Budapest!!

The morning was such a struggle, let me tell you (those dam Walsh sister's and their tequila). Well I had to get myself together so that I could go pick Ben up at the airport. I was super excited that Ben was coming to visit, because we've been friends since freshman year at the dorms!! Eeee, I was soo excited to see my Ben Conde, but getting to the airport was a major struggle on my end... When I saw Ben at the airport it was like I never really left home, it was so normal to see him and didn't feel like I had been living in Budapest for 3 months. 

All of us went out on Monday for the visitor's last night. Jamey and Stefphon were going home and Ben and Eva were going to Italy to travel around. So this had to be the funniest moment of the trip going out wise. There's this bar on Monday nights that everyone goes to called Morrison's. Now on Monday's they have a deal where it's 500 forints for cover and you get 3 beers as long as you're there before 11. Claudia, Ryan, Kathy, and I tell the group that we'll meet up with them later and head to Morrison's for the deal. We get off of the tram at 10:50 and it's a bit of a walk, all of a sudden Ryan starts jogging and us girls start too. Claudia, Kathy, and I are dying of laughter running for a beer deal and half to keep stopping to pull our pants up or because I couldn't stop crying since I was laughing so hard!!! Don't worry we made it at exactly 11 and it was the best damn beers ever! #dreamteaming!! We went to Kolor after to meet up with everyone and enjoy their last night. It was a great way to end their stay in Budapest. 

The next morning it was a bit stressful watching everyone leave, they are not the best planners with traveling. Ben and Eva ended up missing their flight to Italy and stayed in Budapest for an extra couple days. But we were going to see Ben and Eva before they flew home so it wasn't sad watching them leave. 

It has been a crazy week with all the visitors and I'm kind of glad their leaving. I mean I loved having them here, but I have sooo much school stuff to work on for finals!! My last big trip is coming up, Italy so crazy excited for this trip-- Szia!

Thanksgiving abroad round 2

"Budapest Friendsgiving"

 Oh Thanksgiving, one of the most beloved holidays in the States. It's the kick-off to the holiday season, end of classes, and involves my most favorite thing in the world... FOOD!!! This is now my 2nd Thanksgiving that I have spent abroad (1st time was when I visited Rach in England) and let me just tell you how much I was looking forward to Thanksgiving!! I pretty much organized us all getting together and bringing a Thanksgiving like dish, because Thanksgiving is honestly my favorite holiday. I mean it's an excuse to eat as much as you want!!! 

Thanksgiving in Budapest was nuts!! Our kitchens kind of suck and really only a few ovens even work. It was a little stressful trying to get everyone to bring/cook something, but in the long run everyone came together and made it that much better of a day. Oh and in case you were wondering, no we did not have turkey for Thanksgiving, instead we got fried chicken from the place downstairs and it didn't even matter.

When it came time to eat we ended up having more than enough food and pretty much a bottle of wine per person! It was a good thing we had so much food, because we had a bunch of guest visiting for the break! Cooking and getting Thanksgiving ready I think brought us all together more as a Budafamily. You really don't realize how close you get to people until a moment like this presents itself. Hassaan gave the Thanksgiving toast, which was very fitting and quite adorable! 

Anyways just check-out how good our food looked...

Before

After

 The food was all soo good!! I couldn't even finish my plate, I think partly because I was full from the wine :/ All of us were having such a good time hanging out with each other it was my favorite Thanksgiving I think I've had ever! After dinner we all went out to Szimpla to continue our celebration. 

It was so much fun to spend Thanksgiving with my Budafamily and it makes me sad to think that our time together is coming to an end. Until next time-- Szia!

Berlin is magical

"My most international weekend"

Oh Berlin!! This was one of my favorite trips of studying abroad. As I already mentioned in my last post I didn't think I was even going to make it to Berlin this past weekend, because of the stomach flu... Luckily it ran it's course and Claudia and I were ready to have an amazing weekend. 

It was just me and Claudia this weekend and it was soo nice to just be traveling with one other person, instead of a group of 11 like last weekend. Don't get me wrong it's so much fun to travel in big groups, but it also can be kind of stressful. We decided to try out couch surfing this weekend too, which was a really cool experience! Claudia figured the whole couch surfing thing out and found us an awesome host to stay with for the weekend, Jonathan! He lived in an old children's hospital (very fitting after us being sick all week) turned into a dorm. It was a little weird at first, but Jonathan was really chill and hospitable. 

 

Since our flight didn't get in until 5pm, Claudia and I dropped our stuff off at Jonathan's and went into the city center to get dinner. We got dinner over by the TV tower and had a delicious Italian dinner. It was so tasty and the city was all lite up with Christmas lights, which made everything so pretty!! 

The start of our date weekend!

The next morning we woke up early and headed to Potsdamer Platz, which is the main city center of Berlin. Okay, so here is one of the greatest things about Berlin they have Dunkin Donuts!!! Ahh I was sooo excited for this and I don't even really like coffee! So of course Claudia and I go and grab a coffee and a donut before sightseeing for the day! We had a jam backed day of sightseeing. First when we got off the tram we saw various parts of the Berlin Wall, pieces of the wall are scattered around the city and almost all of them have been decorated by street artists. We just kind of walked around the city for a bit and there was a Christmas market that we checked out as well.

Next we went to the Dali Museum, probably the first museum I have gone to while studying abroad. The exhibits were really interesting though, I'm not a huge art person but I found Dali's work to be very interesting. Seeing Dali's collaborated work with Disney was one of my favorite parts of the exhibit. Also being in the museum kept us out of the cold for a bit. We grabbed lunch at one of the street vendors at the Christmas Market before heading over to the meeting spot for a free walking tour. I got currywurst, which is essentially just a bratwurst cut up and covered in curry sauce (yes it was delicious)! 

On the walking tour we saw Brandenburg Gate, The Holocaust Memorial, spot where Hitler committed suicide, East-Side Gallery, and a bunch of other stuff. It was kind of cool going on the tour, because in our history classes we have been learning a lot about German history and seeing everything we have been learning about was just neat. 

 

Since it was so very cold out and The Hunger Games 2 had just come out, we decided to go to see it at the international movie theater!! It was so much fun to go to a movie (haven't gone to a movie theater since the states)!! Ooh and the whole movie was in English, yay!! And when we got out of the theater the Platz was all lite up with Christmas decorations and this weird performance was going on, but everythings starting to look so pretty and Christmasy!! It was such a good day and we were both in such a good mood, Christmas season is upon us folks!

Holocaust Memorial

After the movie Claudia and I grabbed some noodles and headed back to Jonathan's. We chilled with Jonathan and some of his friends for the night. He took us out to this bar, which was named Szimpla... so of course we thought it had something to do with Budapest and ordered the best beer I've had since Prague! It was so sweet of Jonathan to take us out to a bar, but like did we really have to leave at 2am?!?! -- I'm surprised I didn't fall asleep at the bar!

 

Next morning we went to another market and had an Irish breakfast, I told you it was our international weekend and we were loving every minute of it. There was no one else on the trip to give us grief for doing our own thing!! Then we headed over to the Museum campus and went to the History Museum. So just a side-note we asked Therese, Robert, and Jake what places we should check out in Berlin because they had gone there earlier on in the semester. Well on the list of places to see they said the History Museum was amazing and you could spend hours there... Umm worst mistake we could have made, the museum was to put it kindly a snooze fest. It wasn't until we got back to Budapest that we found out Therese, Robert, and Jake had never even gone to this museum and put it on the list anyways!!! 

 

After the museum we had to stop at Dunkin to get coffee to wake ourselves up. Then off to see the 

East-Side gallery and Check-point Charlie. This was way more interesting than the museum and again it was almost surreal being there. I remember learning about the Berlin Wall for the first time in third grade and seeing it in person was just beyond anything I could have pictured. Oh and also it took Claudia and I about an hour to make it to the East-Side Gallery, because we kept missing out stop on the tram... I told you that museum made us act like zombies for a while! 

We spent the rest of the day just walking around by Brandenburg Gate and even walked around the Tiergarten for a bit. The Tiergarten is the equivalent of Central Park in New York. We mistakenly went to it when it started getting dark out and it was extremely creepy and I thought we were going to die (I'm being dramatic of course, but I did freak Claudia out when I saw a guy peeing in the forest)! Once we were numb from the cold we made our way towards Alexanderplatz to get dinner. Finally Claudia and I had a real authentic German meal, unless you count currywurst which I really don't..  Yum yum yum it was my favorite meal I think I have had all of abroad!! I mean come on just look how delicious that looks!!!

After dinner we headed back to Jonathan's and I took a much needed nap. Claudia kept coming back to the room to see if I wanted to go out. My nap kind of turned into sleep and I thought I wasn't going to make it out for the night, but I rallied! Jonathan and his friends took us to a house party (we went to a German house party)!! How freakin random is that!?! Agh creepy-mc-creeps, a friend of Jonathan's, though was super annoying at the party. 

I was so sad to leave Berlin. It was the first "city" city I feel like we had gone to the whole trip abroad. It had an almost Chicago like feel to it and it was soo international. I can really see myself living and working in Berlin someday... Hmmmm might have to apply for some summer internship here in the future. 

 

The weekend was amazing and I had such a great time with Claudia. I swear I think we were on some weird high or we both just feel in love with this city. We dubbed this trip "our international weekend" and I can say with certainty I will be back to Berlin in the near future. Until next time-- Szia!!

Getting sick abroad

"Literally the worst 4 days of the trip"

So this is just going to be a very very very short post of me complaining about how awful it was getting sick abroad. 

Here's the deal after coming back from Istanbul I got the stomach flu (I blame the Turkish delight). It lasted four days and got so bad that I didn't think I would be able to go on my trip to Berlin... Honest to god I had never been more homesick my entire time studying abroad! 

Claudia and Steve both ended up getting the stomach flu too so we all bonded over our awful sickness. It was actually kind of funny that Claudia got the stomach flu as well, because we were both suppose to go to Berlin together. We went to the doctor the Wednesday before our trip and got some meds. Luckily the meds worked like a charm and we were able to enjoy our weekend in Berlin!!

The wonderful doctor's office

In hindsight having Claudia to joke around with the whole weekend about being sick was a lot of fun! I mean we just wanted to make it to Berlin without getting sick and ya know what, mission accomplished! Until next time-- Szia! 

Istanbul was once Constantinople

"City of many many cats"

Istanbul is the first trip that I have gone on in what seems like forever! The past 3 weekends I have spent in Budapest, which isn't a bad thing I have just kind of gotten stir crazy. This trip was kind of like a reunion of Croatia, because it was almost the same group again (we just switched 1 Indian for another and added Stephen G)!! Clearly this is going to be a good weekend and Istanbul is going to be so different than all the places we have been going to lately. 

#1 cool thing about Istanbul and this trip is that we flew in on the Asia side of Istanbul and then took a bus into the main city center (where our airb&b is) and crossed over to the Europe side. So we were in 2 continents in 1 weekend, nbd!! After we dropped all our stuff off at the airb&b, we went out sight seeing. We came across this cute little park and were playing this weird game similar to never have I ever and tag. Then we walked around the city to kind of get a feel for what we wanted to check out the rest of the weekend. We ran into the spice market without even realizing it and all the food and Turkish delight there looked and smelled amazing! Alison and I kept getting hit on hard core by all the Turkish men, we concluded that they aren't used to seeing such pale people around... 

Later at night we went to this Turkish pizza restaurant around the corner from our place and the owner then offered to show us where a good Hookah bar was. It had been such a long day and the Hookah bar was so mellow, that Bani and I kind of fell asleep there... Oops

I was awoken in the morning by the prayers being broad casted from the multiple mosques around the city. That was one way to wake up in the morning. To start our day off we wanted to go and check out the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia; we just walked by them so we could go in them with Steve and Therese once they got here. After grabbing lunch, a gyro of course, Alison and I decided to venture off on our own. We really wanted to go and check out the open air markets and get some much needed shopping done!

I really enjoyed the open air markets. Although we were getting hassled by the owners of the stalls it was still something new. There was so much tea, Turkish delight, pottery, jewelry, and pretty much anything else you could think of. Basically we wanted to buy all of the market. Alison and I actually ran into Steve and Therese at the market! Totally random I know, but after talking with them for a bit Alison and I went to have a tea break (Tea Time)! We found this really cute place for tea and just chilled out for a bit before heading back to the airb&b for dinner. 

Date night

All of us went to dinner and got some really yummy fish. Okay side note, I completely hate eating fish when there is too many little bones in it. It drives me crazy and I almost always choke on the damn bones!! So of course that's how this fish was and I ended up giving most of mine to Jake, because I just couldn't deal with the tiny dumb bones (stupid fish)!! Oooh and just another funny moment during dinner Robert pretended to kiss his fish and then freaked out cause he thought he saw it moving and dropped it on the ground..... I was really too tired to go out tonight and went back with a few others. I honestly forgot how much walking you do on these trips, I don't go anywhere for 3 weekends and I'm out of shape -_-

Next day was filled with a lot of sight seeing! We went inside the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, toured the Cisternas Da Basilica, went to the castle, and more time at the open air markets. The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia are both so beautiful, not just on the outside but also inside. This was actually the first time I had ever been inside a Mosque and it was huge!! It is also a place of respect and prayer, not just a tourist attraction. We tried going to the castle, but got there too late (we really did try, we sped walked all the way there)! I really enjoyed the Cisternas, it's an underground water system in Istanbul, which pretty much means a fancy sewer system. It was really cool though, it looked like the Chamber of Secrets from Harry Potter (no joke)! There was even Medusa heads all around the Cisternas!! I was pretty skeptic about the Cisternas and am happy to say that it turned out to be my favorite sight of the day. 

   Alison and I went off again to just explore the city as much as we could and ran into the open air markets again. I feel like everything leads back to those markets, which is good because I really wanted to get some Turkish delight to take back home. Alison and I were obsessed with the white marshmallow and pistachio flavored ones, umm yumm!! I wish we could just bring back these markets to the states, I mean they have everything you could ever need! We ended up getting tea at the same place as yesterday and the server remembered us and gave us complimentary tea! (such a sweetie)!

All of us as a group met back at the airb&b and regrouped for dinner. It's hard to travel in a group of 11 and so we ended up splitting up during the day. During dinner we were all able to catch up on each others day and just hangout. We went back to the Hookah place that we had gone to the first night. It was really chill and a great way to end the trip. 

This has been such an amazing and busy trip. I wish we could have had more time to really get to see more of the city. There was so many interesting things to see and I'm really glad that I went on this trip! To think that I almost didn't go is ridiculous! Until next time--Szia!!

Sushi Dates!!

"Ah salmon skin roll!!"

Ahh sushi dates! Love love love that I have found someone in Budapest to go on sushi dates with me! I am very fond of my sushi dates back home, just a btws. Arielle found this awesome sushi restaurant kind of close to campus that we have been going to for sushi dates/vent sessions!

I absolutely love these days where Arielle and I go and just can talk about all the randomness and craziness of the trip so far! Arielle likes to do her own thing and has made friends with a lot of locals in Budapest. She doesn't hangout with the group a lot so our sushi dates are really nice! Arielle reminds me a lot of Agatha, who I miss very dearly, and I feel like I can really just open up to her about things that have been bugging me. Arielle is really a great person to just talk to about life with!

Also we both really really really like sushi and food in general so these little lunch dates have become more frequent. Until next time--- Szia!!

The weekend everyone was gone

"No guys I really am not going to Barcelona!"

When I was in Barcelona in the Spring!

Ah the weekend everyone was gone... You may think that I'm kidding when I say everyone was gone this weekend, but pretty much everyone went to Barcelona this weekend. It got to the point where everyone thought I was going to Barcelona, because EVERYONE was going to Barcelona (I would've gone with everyone but I had just gone to Barcelona in the Spring earlier this year). 

Well I did not go with them, I stayed the weekend in Budapest with just like three other people. I spent the weekend studying for my film&history make-up exam. It was actually kind of nice to have the dorm room to myself for a few days (then I got really lonely and just wanted everyone to come home)!!

Probably the best part about the weekend was the UV Party. ESN was hosting a UV Party at a club, which was pretty much like a dayglow Budapest style. It was a crazy night and we all had so much fun. Alison's friend from Bentley, Christina, came and visited this weekend and it was fun to walk up Gellert Hill with them at night. Gellert Hill is a great look out point of all of Budapest and at night you can see everything all lite up. 

Honestly I cannot wait for everyone to get back from Barcelona!! It has been far too long and this has literally been the longest I've been away from Claudia this whole trip! Not like we're inseparable or anything, but I'm just so used to being with her all the time.... Anyways I'm really looking forward to going to Istanbul this coming weekend and to be surrounded by people again!

Until next time--- Szia!

Halloween: Budapest Edition

"Do Hungarians even celebrate Halloween?"

But for real do Hungarians even celebrate Halloween?! I still am not sure of the answer to that question, but I can tell you that Americans will still go out of their way to celebrate Halloween in a foreign country... This is the story of our Halloween in Budapest, so sit back and enjoy the festivities! 

All of us had finally picked a place to go to for Halloween, A38 that boat club thing and now we just needed to come up with costumes for the evening. I feel like I spent most of the day running around helping people get ready for the night or make their costumes. Well I mean I did spend most of the day making Isaac's kissing booth costume, which is amazeballs!! I was super pumped when he agreed to be it for Halloween! 

Then the rest of the night I helped Raya with her pippy-longstocking piggy tails, Kane with his day of the dead make-up, and finally threw together something for my own costume. Honestly the getting ready was the funniest part of the whole night! The pre-game was also a ton of fun! 

We all hungout in Kane and Nick's room before leaving and it was nuts! I mean Therese was bouncing up and down on the beds for some reason, everyone was taking pictures, and we were all just enjoying each others craziness. Leaving for the club was another difficult task for all of us and required me chasing after Nick, who thought he was really Usain Bolt... -_- But really celebrating Halloween in Budapest was a crazy experience that a lot of people will never end up remembering. 

Next morning waking up and hearing everyone's stories from the night before was priceless. I mean like I don't think I had every laughed so hard after a night out! We spent this day recovering from the night before and a bunch of us played a scrimmage soccer game. Only shitty part of the soccer game was the field was covered in dog shit.... It was still a lot of fun and we ended the day going to the local Hooters for some wings... Total American move on our parts.

 The next day was Nick's birthday and that was another unforgettable forgettable night. A bunch of us celebrated by going to Tandoori (Omg I love this place!) and then getting everyone together for another party in his and Kane's room! The Italians and other of our friends came to the dorms to help us celebrate Nick's birthday. Another great Budapest celebrated birthday and like I've mentioned I def celebrated like it was my own bday!

Another exciting weekend in Budapest. This upcoming weekend is going to be very quiet since almost everyone is leaving me to go to Barcelona for the weekend! Mehhh, well until next time!! --- Szia!